Classic:
1 – Thomas Blacharz & Alice Mei
2 – Kevin St. Laurent & Jo Hoffberg
3 – Nick Williams & Laura Keat

Champion Strictly
1 – Max Pitruzzella & Annie Trudeau
2 – Nick Williams & Laura Keat
3 – Kevin St. Laurent & Carla Heiney

Invitational Jack & Jill:
1 – Todd Yannacone & Annie Trudeau
2 – Jeremy Otth & Carla Heiney
3 – Skye Humphries & Laura Keat

Solo Charleston:
1 – Kevin St. Laurent
2 – Max Pitruzzella
3 – Bobby Bonsey

Pro-Am:
1 – Oscar Hampton & Annie Trudeau
2 – Alisha Ruiss & Max Pitruzella
3 – Eric Lim & Laura Glaess

Cabaret:
1 – Jerry, the Hip Hop Specialist
2 – Naomi Uyama
3 – Top Drawer

Advanced J&J:
1 – Thomas Blacharz & Mikaela Hellsten
2 – Mike Roberts & Natasha Ouimet
3 – Andreas Olsson & Kate Hedin

All Around Awesome and Has Given something to the scene that will forever change it for the better:

Andrew Thigpen and Karen Turman

Open Strictly Lindy:
1 – Jamie Cameron & Gina Helfrich
2 – Daryl Begin & Jennifer Stout
3 – Anthony Chen & Rachel Green

Strictly Balboa:
1 – Mickey Fortanasce & Kelly Arsenault
2 – Bobby White & Kate Hedin
3 – Todd Yannacone & Mia Goldsmith

Balboa J&J:
1 – Adam Speen & Mia Goldsmith
2 – Bobby White & Heather Ballew
3 – Patrick Szmidt & Nelle Cherry

Open J&J:
1 – Mitchel & Lauren
2 – Elliot Susel & Hanna Sigurdh
3 – Paul Echevarria & Andrea Gordon

Team:
1 – Swinging Airforce
2 – Top Notch
3 – The Woodside Jumpers

If you’d like to see the actual score sheets, please click here! Thanks for taking pictures Patrick & Natasha!

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People brought their A-Game and that’s all there is too it. In many ways, I didn’t feel like the placement matter….everybody rocked.

Here are some favorite moments:

Solo Charleston Contest

My dance partner kicked ass and won! Not only that, but he had someone do a front flip over his head, and he still won. That’s gotta say something!

Invitational Jack and Jill Lindy – Todd Yannacone & Annie Trudeau

There are many reasons to include this – like the fact they won – but the reason I do is because of what Todd said before he went out. During Skye’s and Laura’s dance, Skye brought Laura and himself over to the Baltimore Section of the floor. Todd smiled and said that was a cheap shot. Then, when it was Todd’s turn, he not only took the SAME “cheap shot”, but then blew that shot out of the water! He went to the Baltimore corner, showed Annie off to the judges, then to the far corner, and then ran by all the the instructors sitting on stage. Hahaha….very, very amusing.

Invitational Jack and Jill Lindy – Stefan Durham & Jo Hoffberg

The dances I have with Stefan are like none other. He is super creative and I dig his lines. Fun Fact: he drew me in the J&J at ILHC in 2008 as well!

ILHC 2010 – Showcase – Max Pitruzzella & Annie Trudeau

There are sooooooo many things that can be said about this gorgeous routine. The energy, their creativity, their musicality, their aerials, their….. everything. Congratulations to both Max & Annie on their win.

ILHC 2010 – Showcase – Andrew Thigpen & Karen Turman

They killed it!!!!!!!!! Andrew and Karen ARE the spirit of Lindy Hop, according to me. They bring so much energy, heart, and love to the dance, it’s inspiring. I am so honored to have made it into Lindy Hop History this way. For me, this dance will be one to stand the test of time. If only two clips of lindy hop were to survive an apocalypse, I hope it’d be Hellzapoppin’ and this one.

ILHC 2010 – Classic Lindy – Thomas Blacharz & Alice Mei

After they came off the floor, I told them I thought they were the couple to beat. What an amazing job they did!!! The choreography is musical and intricate, they performance is stunning, and frankly, the just danced the shit out of that routine!

ILHC 2010 – Classic Lindy – Kevin St. Laurent & Jo Hoffberg

I am adding myself to the list because I am super proud of what Kevin and I did. This is our first Classic piece and the reviews we’ve been given were pretty spectacular. What was most noteworthy to me about this performance was that I felt like we had SO MUCH TIME while performing. Normally I have to think about the choreography and focus on the details while performing, but here, I had time to look at the audience, the judges, and Kevin. I just felt like…..it was effortless. That was a first for me.

ILHC 2010 – Pro Champions Strictly Lindy – Finals

I thought this was a great showing for the pros AND it was a return to the old school. Kevin & Carla reunited to kick some ass (they took 3rd), Skye and Naomi danced together, and Todd and I competed (we were partners many years ago). It was an old school battle.

And Finally, the Yes Dance!

Yeah, this isn’t the one that was done, but I can’t find a link to it. If you find it, please let me know!!!

ILHC 2010 – Charleston Solo – Finals – All Skate

COMPETITION RESULTS

1. Kevin St. Laurent
2. Max Pitruzzella
2. Bobby Bonsey

CLASSIC DIVISION

Tommy Blacharz & Alice Mei

Mikey Pedroza and Nikki Marvin

Mike Roberts and Laura Glaess

Kevin St. Laurent & Jo Hoffberg

Oskar Markusson & Mikaela Hellsten

Nick Williams & Laura Keat

Joshua Welter & Mélanie Huot-Lavoie

RESULTS FROM CLASSIC:

1. Thomas Blacharz & Alice Mei
2. Kevin St. Laurent & Jo Hoffberg
3. Nick Williams & Laura Keat

If you’d like to buy the song, click here.

Now, check us out!!

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For decades jazz cognoscenti have talked reverently of “the Savory Collection.” Recorded from radio broadcasts in the late 1930s by an audio engineer named William Savory, it was known to include extended live performances by some of the most honored names in jazz — but only a handful of people had ever heard even the smallest fraction of that music, adding to its mystique.

After 70 years that wait has now ended. This year the National Jazz Museum in Harlem acquired the entire set of nearly 1,000 discs, made at the height of the swing era, and has begun digitizing recordings of inspired performances by Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Bunny Berigan, Harry James and others that had been thought to be lost forever. Some of these remarkable long-form performances simply could not fit on the standard discs of the time, forcing Mr. Savory to find alternatives. The Savory Collection also contains examples of underappreciated musicians playing at peak creative levels not heard anywhere else, putting them in a new light for music fans and scholars.

“Some of us were aware Savory had recorded all this stuff, and we were really waiting with bated breath to see what would be there,” said Dan Morgenstern, the Grammy-winning jazz historian and critic who is also director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University. “Even though I’ve heard only a small sampling, it’s turning out to be the treasure trove we had hoped it would be, with some truly wonderful, remarkable sessions. None of what I’ve heard has been heard before. It’s all new.”

After making the recordings, Mr. Savory, who had an eccentric, secretive streak, zealously guarded access to his collection, allowing only a few select tracks by his friend Benny Goodman to be released commercially. When he died in 2004, Eugene Desavouret, a son who lives in Illinois, salvaged the discs, which were moldering in crates; this year he sold the collection to the museum, whose executive director, Loren Schoenberg, transported the boxes to New York City in a rental truck.

Part of what makes the Savory collection so alluring and historically important is its unusual format. At the time Savory was recording radio broadcasts for his own pleasure, which was before the introduction of tape, most studio performances were issued on 10-inch 78-r.p.m. shellac discs, which, with their limited capacity, could capture only about three minutes of music.

But Mr. Savory had access to 12- or even 16-inch discs, made of aluminum or acetate, and sometimes recorded at speeds of 33 1/3 r.p.m. That combination of bigger discs, slower speeds and more durable material allowed Mr. Savory to record longer performances in their entirety, including jam sessions at which musicians could stretch out and play extended solos that tested their creative mettle.

“Most of what exists from this era was done at home by young musicians or fans, and so you get really bad-sounding recordings,” Mr. Schoenberg said. “The difference with Bill Savory is that he was both a musician and a technical genius. You hear some of this stuff and you say, ‘This can’t be 70 years old.’ ”

As a result, many of the broadcasts from nightclubs and ballrooms that Mr. Savory recorded contain more relaxed and free-flowing versions of hit songs originally recorded in the studio. One notable example is a stunning six-minute Coleman Hawkins performance of “Body and Soul” from the spring of 1940; in it this saxophonist plays a five-chorus solo even more adventurous than the renowned two-chorus foray on his original version of the song, recorded in the fall of 1939. By the last chorus, he has drifted into uncharted territory, playing in a modal style that would become popular only when Miles Davis recorded “Kind of Blue” in 1959.

Glimpsing the Jazz Hierarchy

Asked if the Savory recordings were likely to prompt a critical reassessment of some jazz musicians or a reordering of the informal hierarchy by which fans rank instrumentalists, Mr. Morgenstern responded by citing the case of Herschel Evans, a saxophonist who played in the Count Basie Orchestra but who died early in 1939, just before his 30th birthday. Evans played alongside Lester Young, who was one of the giants of the saxophone and constantly overshadowed Evans on the Basie group’s studio recordings.

“There can never be too much Lester Young, and there is some wonderful new Lester Young on these discs,” Mr. Morgenstern said. “But there are also some things where you can really hear Herschel, who is woefully under-represented on record and who, until now, we hardly ever got to hear stretched out. What I’ve heard really gives us a much better picture of what he was all about.”

The collection has already shed new light on what is considered the first outdoor jazz festival, the 1938 Carnival of Swing on Randalls Island. More than 20 groups played at the event, including the Duke Ellington and Count Basie orchestras, and though newsreel footage exists, no audio of the festival was believed to have survived — until part of performances by Count Basie and Stuff Smith turned up on Mr. Savory’s discs.

Other material consists of some of the most acclaimed names in jazz playing in unusual settings or impromptu ensembles. Goodman, for example, performs a duet version of the Gershwins’ “Oh, Lady Be Good!” with Teddy Wilson on harpsichord (instead of his usual piano), while Billie Holiday is heard, accompanied only by a piano, singing a rubato version of her anti-lynching anthem, “Strange Fruit,” barely a month after her original recording was released.

“The record is more like a dance tempo, whereas this version is how she would have done it in clubs,” Mr. Schoenberg, a saxophonist and pianist who is also the author of “The NPR Curious Listener’s Guide to Jazz,” said of the live Holiday recording. “You have the most inane scripted introduction ever, but then Billie comes in, and she drives a stake right through your heart.”

Please click here to read the rest of the article.

Enjoy!

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Jack and Jill

Zacke and Michaela were the winners.

Strictly Lindy

Zacke and Frida won.

Thanks Rikomatic for posting the videos!

Contestants: Josette Wiggan (USA), Juan Villafane (AR), Sharon Davis (AUS).

Videos from Lindytysk

Cabaret, Week 5

Cabaret Week 4

Cabaret Week 3

Week 3 Recap by Bobby Bonsey

The Rhythm Junkies, Week 5

The Rhythm Junkies – Viper’s Mad

The Rhythm Junkies and The Carling Family Band

Herrang Bollywood Opening week 2 with Jaume de Francisco

Charleston World of Herrang by JB Mino

Charleston Class with Jana

Holy cow! Jana has so much energy and her lines are outstanding. xoxo

Shakespeare in Herrang

What did I miss that you’ve seen that I should? Post a link in the comments for me!!
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Enjoy!

LotR 2010 – Communication – Kevin and Jo from Jo Hoffberg on Vimeo.

Kevin St. Laurent and Jo Hoffberg performing their new Classic routine, Communication, at Lindy on the Rocks 2010.

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Without further adieu, here is “Communication”.

Camp Hollywood 2010 – Showcase Division – Kevin and Jo from Jo Hoffberg on Vimeo.

I also have to post Marty and Delilah’s “Posin’” because it just tickled me!

Fuck, I just love that girl. She’s a whole lot of awesome if you ask me. Enjoy!!